Today, I'm releasing the Hacker News YouTube Monitor.

A self-hosted GitHub Action that scans Hacker News every 15 minutes for YouTube videos, extracts metadata, and stores everything in your PostgreSQL database.

No APIs to rent. No monthly subscriptions. Just continuous, automated video intelligence.

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The Problem We Solved

YouTube videos trend on Hacker News for a reason. They're tutorials that actually teach. Documentaries that matter. Tech talks that shift perspectives.

But you only see them if you're refreshing HN at the right moment. Miss the window, and the video is buried forever.

I built a net. Every YouTube link that appears on HN—captured, scored, and stored. Forever searchable.

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What Gets Captured

Every 15 minutes, the monitor extracts:

• Video ID — direct link to the video
• YouTube URL — full link
• HN Score — community engagement
• Author — who submitted it
• Title — the HN submission title
• Timestamp — when it first appeared

Perfect for trend discovery, content curation, and DevRel teams tracking AI demos.

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Getting Started

Requirements:

• PostgreSQL (Neon, Supabase, RDS)
• GitHub repository
• Python 3.9+

Setup:

CREATE TABLE hn_youtube_videos (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    hn_id TEXT UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    video_id TEXT NOT NULL,
    url TEXT NOT NULL,
    title TEXT,
    score INTEGER,
    author TEXT,
    created_at TIMESTAMP NOT NULL
);

CREATE INDEX idx_hn_youtube_score ON hn_youtube_videos(score DESC);
CREATE INDEX idx_hn_youtube_created_at ON hn_youtube_videos(created_at DESC);

Configure:

DATABASE_URL = "postgresql://USER:PASSWORD@HOST/DATABASE?sslmode=require"

Run:

pip install requests psycopg2-binary
python script.py

Deploy: Push to GitHub, enable Actions. Done. ✅

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What You'll See

🎥 Found 6 YouTube videos on HN
✅ Inserted 4 new records

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Why This Matters

The videos that break through on HN represent something: emerging trends, breakthrough explanations, industry shifts.

Newsletter curators, content creators, and researchers need this data. Now it's automated.

One-time purchase. Runs forever. Your data, your database.

Welcome to effortless video intelligence.